California Bill to Preserve Online Games Fails Committee Vote
A California bill that would have required game publishers to notify players before taking games offline and offer refunds or continued play failed to pass a state senate committee.
The Protect Our Games Act hit a roadblock in the California State Senate's Business, Professions and Economic Development committee, with four state senators voting in favor, three against, and four abstaining. The committee unanimously voted to grant the bill reconsideration, meaning it could come back before the same group.
Assemblymember Chris Ward introduced the bill in February, and it passed the California State Assembly 43-16 in late May. However, the abstentions prevented further progress. "Not enough yeses means the bill stops here for this session," a volunteer with the Stop Killing Games campaign, which supported the bill, noted on Reddit. "That is the loss."
The volunteer, writing as u/Mr_Presidentle, claimed this was the first attempt at such legislation in the US and that it got this far without paid staff or in-person lobbying. They said the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) — a trade group of major game publishers — brought in a lobbyist to halt the bill, including by arguing that private servers for games like Minecraft would be "illegal." Stop Killing Games vowed to be better prepared next time.
"Next session, we come back with an in-person lobbying presence, the funding to do this properly and a long list of organizations and developers signed on in support," the volunteer wrote. "We are not limiting this to California. We intend to introduce versions of this in other state legislatures, and we are seriously looking at the federal level."
If enacted, the bill would require publishers and "digital game operators" to give consumers a 60-day heads-up before delisting a game, along with information on how to obtain a refund or continue playing. For example, operators could allow play on private or community-run servers. The rules would not apply to subscription-based or free-to-play games. As VGC notes, players who logged into MultiVersus before its shutdown in 2025 received an update enabling offline play — a model that could help publishers avoid mass refunds under similar legislation.
